The invention relates to information retrieval machines and more particularly to machines for magnetically reading and writing information on a magnetic tape.
Machines for magnetically acting on the tape held in individual cartridges or cassettes which are held by and are selectively moved out of a rotating carousel have previously been proposed. The tape used in such machines is of the relatively narrow variety, and the tape is held in the carousel with the axes of the tape spools in the cassette extending at angles to the axis of the carousel. Such machines are, for example, disclosed in the U.S. Pat. to Foelkel No. 3,617,066 and the U.S. Pat. to Raine No. 3,484,055. A similar mechanism for bringing any one of a series of motion picture film cassettes to a position wherein the film of the cassette passes through an operative position is disclosed in Kremp et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,702,727.